A few years ago, New York magazine scribe Michael Idov and his wife decided to open a café. Their venture — Café Trotsky, located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — closed after six months.

Afterwards, Idov did what any self-respecting journalist would do: He wrote about it. “Ground Up,” his fictionalized account of his business’ rise and fall, was just released by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux books.

“I just wanted to own a café,” Idov admitted last night over dill-infused vodka, at the Russian Samovar launch party for “Ground Up.” “The only problem was I wanted to own it and not work in it.”

Idov also says he wasn’t planning on writing a novel about the experience until after the fact. “My least favorite type of literature is the ‘year I did that wacky thing’ genre,” he says. “[‘Ground Up’] could only have been a novel — the truth is just not that dramatic. The only surprise was that we lost our money slightly faster.”

But, look! At least it inspired a Slate essay. And this novel. For other ink-stained wretches aspiring to launch their own Ninth Street Espresso, Idov had some tips.

1. “Don’t name your café after Trotsky unless you’re trying to attract communists. They’re not much for disposable income.”